SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Asia's gasoline crack touched a one-week low of $8.13 a barrel
on Wednesday on ample stocks but cash deals remained active as Emirates National Oil Company
(ENOC) continued to scoop up a sizable amount of petrol.
- ENOC bought six of the seven cargoes traded in the Singapore cash market on Wednesday,
bringing its total purchases since Sept. 3 to 1.15 million barrels.
- This made up some 85 percent of total volumes sold this week and the cargoes bought by ENOC
so far were sufficient to fill nearly five medium-range size tankers.
- In late August, ENOC was however mainly selling gasoline in the Singapore cash market.
- It sold a total of 550,000 barrels of the fuel between Aug. 24 and Aug. 31 before its
position changed.
- It was unclear what were the reasons behind ENOC's buying spree as traders do not typically
comment on their operations nor positions.
* OTHER RELATED NEWS: Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corp shut a 46,000 barrel-per-day (bpd)
fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit at its Sakai refinery in Osaka on Tuesday following damage to
a part of the cooling tower due to the typhoon.
- But Japan's gasoline stocks in the week to Sept. 1 edged up 80,000 barrels to 9.85 million
barrels, official data showed.
- Current levels were however lower versus a year ago.
- Japan's overall refinery utilisation was down 2.6 percent to 91.6 percent in the week to
Saturday.
* NAPHTHA: Asia's naphtha crack eased to a one-week low of $97.98 a tonne on Wednesday due to
ample supplies.
- Naphtha fundamentals in Asia had improved between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4 as demand for spot and
term cargoes soaked up some of the supplies.
- But the market direction changed mid-week as a total of 220,000 tonnes of naphtha were being
offered to the spot market this week from Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Egypt.
- This came shortly after Bahrain had sold 50,000 tonnes of naphtha for early October loading
at premiums of more than $10 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
- Although Indonesia's Pertamina was looking to buy up to 625,000 barrels of naphtha for
September arrival at Tuban, traders said this was not additional demand.
- Pertamina had cancelled an earlier purchase tender.
- Malaysia-based Titan on the other hand picked up naphtha for second-half October arrival at
Pasir Gudang at a low single-digit a tonne discount to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F)
basis.
- This reflected the market still being saddled with supplies, prompting sellers to release
cargoes at discounts.
* OTHER TENDERS: India's BPCL cancelled a tender to sell up to 25,000 tonnes of naphtha for
Sept. 13-20 loading from Kochi.
- Thailand's PTT emerged with a tender to sell 27,500 tonnes of light naphtha for Oct. 16-20
loading from Map Ta Phut through a tender closing on Sept. 5.
- It had previously offered similar volumes but for early October loading which traders said
had likely been sold as a gasoline blendstock.
- This however could not be confirmed.
LIGHT DISTILLATES
CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev Close RIC
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M1 680.50 -15.00 -2.16 695.50 NAF-1H-TYO
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M2 679.00 -14.00 -2.02 693.00 NAF-2H-TYO
OSN Naphtha Diff 1.50 -1.00 -40.00 2.50 NAF-TYO-DIF
Naphtha Netback FOB Sing 74.03 -1.68 -2.22 75.71 NAF-SIN
Naphtha Diff FOB Sing 0.25 -0.05 -16.67 0.30 NAF-SIN-DIF
Naphtha-Brent Crack 97.98 -6.52 -6.24 104.50 NAF-SIN-CRK
Gasoline 97 89.50 -1.75 -1.92 91.25 GL97-SIN
Gasoline 95 87.90 -1.70 -1.90 89.60 GL95-SIN
Gasoline 92 85.80 -1.65 -1.89 87.45 GL92-SIN
Gasoline crack 8.13 -0.52 -6.01 8.65 GL92-SIN-CRK
For a list of derivatives prices, including margins, please double
click the RICs below.
Brent M1
Naphtha CFR Japan M1
Naphtha CFR Japan M1/M2
Naphtha CFR Japan M2
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M1
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M2
Naphtha FOB Sing M1
Naphtha FOB Sing M1/M2
Naphtha FOB Sing M2
Naphtha Cracks M1
East-West Naphtha M1
East-West Naphtha M2
NWE Naphtha M1
NWE Naphtha M1/M2
NWE Naphtha M2
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M1
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M2
*Sing refers to Singapore
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; editing by David Evans)